SMF Singapore Innovation and Productivity Institute (SiPi), one of the six Centers of Excellence under the banner of Singapore Manufacturing Federation (SMF), organized a Think Tank Dialogue solely by invitation to industry partners, on the 23rd of January, 2013.
The exclusive event was well received with more than 40 industry leaders holding key driving positions across Multinational Corporations and Small and Medium Enterprises exchanging their viewpoints on Innovation-led productivity for Singapore.
The event commenced with an opening speech by Mr Valerio Nannini, Chairman of the SiPi Board of Advisors, themed “Driving Innovation Culture in Singapore”, through association with Ferrari. Mr Nannini stated: “I am Italian, I am passionate about Ferrari and I am also passionate about innovation.”
Recognizing the need to drive innovation and entrepreneurship in Singapore, Mr. Nannini also pointed out four key strategies to drive business innovation thinking: Leading through objectives and goals, Championing continuous improvement, Building business partnership and Facilitating learning.
Ms Shirley Pek, SiPi Manager, additionally gave participants key insights from a Frost & Sullivan survey conducted amongst local SMEs – detailing the challenges faced in five key areas of People, Processes & Systems, Product, Market and Policies. These formed the focus region for discussions of participants who were divided into clusters representing the five key areas.
The breakout discussion was led by Group Facilitator, Dr Michael Teng, Assistant Secretary-General of SMF, who was assisted by Table Facilitators from the SiPi team. Facilitator of each group shared statistics and exchanged viewpoints with the participants meaningfully.
Thoughts and ideas of participants are jotted down on post-it notes, consolidated and presented. “The dialogue session witnessed active participation and vigorous discussion. I am excited to see these ideas come-to-life” commented Mr Nannini.
A voting session was held at the finale of the event and the “Market” group received top honors of best presentation, walking away with the table prize.
“The event was an excellent platter to share experiences and views cross industry, organization size and nature” – Mr Lee Siew Kit, Vice President-IT Services of Singapore Airport Terminal Services (SATS).
“Many thanks for the opportunity to participate in SMF/SiPi Think Tank Dialogue. Appreciate your generous sharing of the information & photos. It was a well organised event with great engagement of & superb energy from the audience. Congratulations on your success!" – Ms Betty Kan, Certified Professional Trainer and Busan Licensed Instructor.
“Overall very stimulating and key issues of SMEs well-articulated" - Mr Allan Phua, Business Development Manager of Centre of Innovation for Electronics.